delvsDVDConfusable pair

Quick tell: del is a contraction, DVD is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“del” is a contraction and “DVD” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,706
“del” frequency rank
#3,470
“DVD” frequency rank
5176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature del DVD
Definition do, da, contração da preposição de com o artigo definido singular el: tipo de disco ótico para armazenar sons, imagens e/ou informações digitais, com capacidade entre 4,7 e 17 GB

Letter map: del vs DVD

Shared letters muted; letters that set del and DVD apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
del
3 ch
DVD

Part-of-speech tell for del / DVD

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: del is acontraction and DVDanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

del is recorded at frequency rank #1,706, classified as acontraction. DVD is at rank #3,470, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced /de.ve.ˈde/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 5176, this pair ranks #69,519 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of del vs DVD

Shared letters: d. Private to "del": el. Private to "DVD": v.

"del" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "DVD" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "del" and "DVD" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "del" is a contraction and "DVD" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "del" or "DVD" show up more?
"del" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,706 in our Portuguese list, against #3,470 for "DVD". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "del" and "DVD".

  • Full dictionary entry for "del" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "DVD" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,519 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "del" and "DVD" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dat vs DVD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,519 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list